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Apple Silicon M1 chip in MacBook Air outperforms high-end 16-inch MacBook Pro

(www.macrumors.com)
1080 points antipaul | 8 comments | 12 Nov 20 00:56 UTC | HN request time: 0.247s | source | bottom
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zdw ◴[12 Nov 20 04:30 UTC] No.25066465[source]▶
AMD's Zen 3 (Ryzen 5xxx series) are beating the Apple M1 in single core score: https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/singlecore

As another datapoint Ian (of Anandtech) estimated that the M1 would need to be clocked at 3.25Ghz to match Zen 3, and these systems are showing a 3.2Ghz clock: https://twitter.com/IanCutress/status/1326516048309460992

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gjsman-1000 ◴[12 Nov 20 04:31 UTC] No.25066469[source]▶
OK... but let's say it's 95% there, even. How much power does an M1 draw compared to a 5950X? It's not even funny. And the M1 is running at a lower clock.
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1. martinesko36 ◴[12 Nov 20 04:45 UTC] No.25066541[source]▶
Plus, 5950X costs 799$ for the chip alone. (cooler no included)
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2. gjsman-1000 ◴[12 Nov 20 04:49 UTC] No.25066562[source]▶
I think it was AnandTech, but an analysis suggested that Apple's BOM price for the M1 (which of course excludes R&D costs, software dev costs, profit, it's just the raw manufacturing cost) to be about $64.
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3. kube-system ◴[12 Nov 20 05:06 UTC] No.25066655[source]▶
Sure, and AMD's is probably similar.

The difference being that Apple only sells theirs inside of $1000+ computers, and AMD has to make up the entire margin on their CPU alone.

Behold, the power of vertical integration.

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4. dr_zoidberg ◴[12 Nov 20 06:00 UTC] No.25066944{3}[source]▶
The power of vertical integration means that Apple could sell their hardware at a loss, to get you inside the Walled Garden TM and then keep 30% of all you spend inside it.

I'm not saying they do that, considering how much their products cost, I'm saying they could. That's what vertical integration brings to their table, above all else.

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5. makeramen ◴[12 Nov 20 06:14 UTC] No.25066999{4}[source]▶
Apple does the opposite by giving away their software and design “for free” and making up for it with hardware margins.
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6. pmontra ◴[12 Nov 20 06:53 UTC] No.25067192{5}[source]▶
They give away their software but get a 30% on the software made by other companies and do their best not to let those companies get paid by other means than Apple's stores. I think this was the point of GP.
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7. Reason077 ◴[12 Nov 20 11:40 UTC] No.25068765{6}[source]▶
> "They give away their software but get a 30% on the software made by other companies"

Not on Mac they don't. macOS isn't tied to the App Store in the same way that iOS devices are, and it probably accounts for a tiny percentage of third-party Mac software sales by value.

8. kllrnohj ◴[12 Nov 20 14:41 UTC] No.25070365[source]▶
It's also 4x the big cores and with way way way more L3 cache & I/O.

Almost like they are completely different CPUs with completely different design goals...